Wednesday, April 7, 2010

WEDNESDAY'S BURNING QUESTION

Ellen Hart writes:

I have a dear friend who writes everyday in a coffee shop. When he starts a new project, he always buys himself a new Mead wire-bound notebook. He sits in a booth, takes out his Bic pen, (always a Bic) and the magic flows.

When I write, there’s always a cup of coffee next to my desk. I often light a candle. I move into my writing day the same way every day. We all have rituals. Some of the more neurotic among us (I’m raising my hand here) even have superstitions. We have the same goal--to get to that place where we do our best writing.

7 comments:

Not exactly a ritual, but my favorite stage in the writing process. I've got a first draft of a chapter or two, print it out triple spaced, then take it into a sunny spot in the backyard, glass of iced tea (plenty of lemon) on hand, and edit away.

I'm a night writer. After a long day working on other people's projects, I like to cozy up with my laptop and get cracking on my WIP. And each WIP has its own notebook where I start my character dev./plotting and keep all my random notes and ideas. :)

I always read what I wrote at the last session and edit that so I can get back into the story before moving forward. Because I'm so undisciplined and have no writing schedule, I need that immersion. And I have a goal of 1,000 new words on a writing day.

I'm a little more like the Mead guy - or maybe Curt Schilling with the bloody socks. I buy ten Faber-Castell 5B pencils and a new pencil case. I write longhand and I know the book is almost done when the pencils are about 3 inches long and I have to keep wiggling my fingers so they don't cramp up.

The Sheilas are in synch again--I always read the last chapter, to remind myself where I was (and ideally, to try to remember where I thought I was going).

No paper, no pencils--just my trusty, overheated laptop, and maybe a cat on my lap.

I started typing at an early age--I got through AP history in high school by writing what amounted to synopses, condensing the contents of my history book into a short summary, direct from book through fingers to page. My history teacher was much impressed. Who knew what good training it would be?